170 IMPORTANCE OF A HEAVENLY [Chap. I1. and is most admired for his performances, while his heart is not thus taken up with God. The man that Christ will find out at the last day, and condemn for want of a " wed- ding garment," will be one that wants this frame of heart. The question will not then be, How much have you known, or professed, or talked ? but, How much have you loved, and where was your heart? Christians, as you would have a proof of your title to glory, labor to get your hearts above. If sin and Satan keep not your affections from thence, they will never be able tokeep away your persons. 2. A heart in heaven is the highest excellence of Ghristiaia temper. As there is a common excellence, by which Christians differ from the world, so there is this peculiar dignity of spirit, by which the more excellent differ from the rest. As the noblest of creatures, so the noblest of Christians, are they whose faces are set most direct for heaven. Such a heavenly saint, who bath been wrapped up to God in his contemplations, and is newly come down from the views of Christ, what discoveries- will he make of those superior regions ! how high and sacred is his dis- course ! enough to convince an understanding hearer that he bath seen the Lord, and that no man could speak such words, except he had been with God. This, this is the noble Christian. The most famous mountains and trees are those that reach nearest to heaven ; and he is the choicest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there. If a man have lived near the king, or hath seen the sultan of Persia, or the great Turk, he will be thought a step higher than his neighbors. What, then, shall we judge of him that daily travels as far as heaven, and there hath seen the King of kings, bath fre- quent admittance into the divine presence, and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life ? For my part, I value this man before the noblest, the richest, the most learned, in the world. 3. A heavenly mind is the nearest and truest way to a life of comfort. The countries far north are cold and frozen, because they are distant from the sun. What makes such frozen, uncomfortable Christians, but their living so far from heaven ? And what makes others so warm in com- forts, but their living higher, and having nearer access to God ? When the sun in the spring draws nearer to our
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